My Accent

I received a call today from a lady who gave me feedback on an article I wrote and who wanted to clarify an error I had made in an article. She said she had nothing against what I wrote and didn't want a correction. I had written that her husband and her applied for a two lot subdivision and that one house was meant for her daughter and another for them. But she said one house wasn't for them. But I said I heard it mentioned at the meeting. She clarified that her husband said "for our uses", which I thought meant the house was for them. Well, this has taught me to just put it down in future as it was said.

And then she began to ask me about my accent. She asked where I was from. I told her Singapore. And she asked if I ever grew up in Canada cos she has a Canadian granddaughter and I sounded like her. I said many people had commented on my accent and said I either sounded American or Canadian, but there are some words I say that sounds English too. And just like someone mentioned to me previously, I have what one may call a "cosmopolitan accent".

Thing is, I have never had these questions posed to me when I'm in Singapore. Only questions I get in Singapore were "are you from here"? And this were questions I had since I was in my early teens, about 15. I remember having problems with some people at school cos I sounded different and they thought my accent was put on. I don't think I have a forced accent (I hope not!) but I do know that my voice changes and sometimes I sound different than usual (things that are not within my control).

But what is it that makes me sound different? I enjoy public speaking and I suppose from young, I may have paid more attention to public speakers. And I think I select words I like the sound of, and put them in my vocabulary.

But that's not to say my pronounciation is spot-on. It's sometimes out-of-whack and very different to how people in Australia pronounce the very same words. But then even within Australia, different people pronounce the same word differently.

Like when I went to a video shop last week and asked for the movie "Clerks". I pronounced it one way ("klurks") and the lady at the store thought I said "clocks". Then she corrected me and said English Australians pronounce "clerks" as "clarks". So I asked her how does one differentiate between the 2 words "clerks" and "clarks" since they sound the same. She didn't reply. Anyway, I told my colleagues this story and they said she's so rude. But she said it in a matter-of-fact way and I don't think she meant to be rude. And anyway, Phill and my colleagues pronounce it the same way I do. So, then again, within English Australians, there are differences too.